At the meeting of the General Affairs Council held 22 October in Luxembourg, the ministers reached a decision to open Chapter 22 in negotiations with Turkey. “It’s not every day that member states open negotiation chapters with Turkey. Turkey opened the negotiations the same night as Croatia – 3/4 December 2005. We have already become a member state, while Turkey has opened less than third of the chapters. Today, all member states agreed to open Chapter 22: Regional Policy and Coordination of Structural Instruments, which means that the Commission is preparing to start the negotiations,” Minister Pusic explained after the meeting.
She also commented on the other topics of GAC, notably those from the draft of the European Council’s conclusions: digital agenda, market solidification, strengthening of small and medium-sized entrepreneurship, youth employment and migration policy.
“Digital agenda concerns creating a single digital EU market, on which Scandinavian countries and France insist on. This creates a problem that concerns us as well and includes investing in infrastructure, e.g. broadband internet and all else required for digital market to make sense. Croatia advocates investing and equalizing this infrastructure in all EU member states,” Pusic said.
The European Council’s conclusions pertain to strengthening the common market as well as the rules regulating the European Monetary Union and the European Banking Union. “Given that 90 per cent or more of banks in Croatia are owned by banks operating on that market, we don’t have any major difficulties with that. What’s important for us is that decision-making is not limited to EMU member states only, particularly in issues concerning all EU member states,” said Pusic. As one of the topics of interest to Croatia she pointed out financing i.e. creating conditions in which capital is more easily accessible to small and medium-sized companies. “There were many models of ensuring financial means that are acceptable to Croatia, to the extent that they are aimed at small and medium-sized companies and not the financial institutions that would distribute these means. We advocate direct support for small and medium-sized companies as they play a major part in job opportunities, including youth employment, and economic recovery,” the minister said. Youth employment was a separate topic on the agenda, with the ministers discussing the most efficient way of using various forms of EU financing to reduce unemployment among young people.
Pusic also commented on the issue of migration, in light of the tragic death of emigrants near the Italian island of Lampedusa. She said all members states fear immigration in these harsh financial times, while at the same time those most affected (Italy and the Mediterranean-oriented member states) call for solidarity. To compromise, the ministers combined their appeal for solidarity with strictness in controlling the Mediterranean waters so that refugee vessels would not reach the EU shores. Croatia insisted that some of the means allotted for development and humanitarian projects be used for accommodation centres in North Africa.
Press releases
